Rockefeller helped save whales

Published: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 1:15 a.m. CST

By Bob Muschal
Morrison

I’d like to honor the man most responsible for saving the whales that populate our oceans. Liberals disparage and hate him and his memory. He is held out as one of the most evil capitalists God gave us.

I grant he did not go out to save the whale, but he should be credited with their survival.

Oil lamps were the primary source of night lighting. The oil was whale oil, and it cost $1 a gallon. John D. Rockefeller processed petroleum oil to kerosene and sold it for 10 cents a gallon. That made it economically advantageous to use kerosene.

John D. began selling kerosene through the U.S. He shipped the oil by railroads.

The railroads were built by Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The rails were made out of steel produced by Andrew Carnegie.

This country is great because of men who built their own industries. If one of those capitalists had not gambled and provided us with everything we needed, our country would still be in the horse-and-buggy age and wallowing in horse excrement.